Trusted Guide to Nursing Specialties

When you commit to the nursing profession, you’re not just committing yourself to caring for others, you’re committing yourself to doing so within a specific area of nursing. Just like you chose to study nursing in school instead of the many other options out there, you must also choose what kind of nurse you want to be.

This decision isn’t necessarily an easy one, but it’s also not an irreversible decision either. In the same way you can change your college major, you can similarly change your nursing specialty. That said, when deciding on an initial specialty, you need to think carefully about it.

There is a lot that goes into choosing a nursing specialty: education requirements, career advancement, responsibilities, salary, work setting, patient population, and even the most common diagnoses you’ll see on a daily basis.

There Is a Lot That Goes Into Choosing a Nursing Specialty

With so much to consider (like types of nurses from Critical Care Nurse to Informatics Nurse to Nurse Educator and more), where do you begin? Let’s start with the what.

What Are Nursing Specialties?

Put simply, nursing specialties represent specific areas of nursing expertise. As you know by now the human body, how it works, and all the external factors that affect it are complex. Despite all you’ll learn in nursing school and must know for the NCLEX, everything about every area of healthcare and in professional practice is simply too large a task for anyone.

Accordingly, just as in medicine there are different specialties that doctors will commit to, so too must nurses choose an area to specialize in. Nursing specialties can vary by patient age or demographic, type of care given, location of care given, and numerous other factors.

Some nurses even choose to work as travel nurses, gaining a variety of experience across these factors within a specialty (here is some data we collected on choosing a travel nurse specialty).

Some common specialties you’ve definitely heard of? Intensive Care Unit Nurse (ICU) or Emergency Department Nurse (ED/ER). These specialties are typically held by Registered Nurses or RNs, while some other common specialties are actually held by Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners; for example, Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, or Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.

Who Works in Different Nursing Specialties?

Short answer? Licensed Practical Nurses/Licensed Vocational Nurses (LPN/LVNs), Registered Nurses (RNs), Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), and Doctors of Nursing Practice (DNPs)… really all nurses! As mentioned above, nurses work in all areas of healthcare, and the types of specialties available to you differ based upon your nursing school experience and education level. While there are dozens of nursing specialties that begin with RN requirements, there are plenty of others that require advanced degrees, either Masters Degrees in Nursing or even Doctorate Degrees in Nursing (DNPs or PhDs).

Accordingly, there are additional nurse practitioner specialties that are only available to nurses who’ve achieved a certain level of education.

Why Choose a Nursing Specialty?

We all know that education can be expensive, not to mention it can take away significant time from work. So, why commit to choosing a specialty, particularly one that requires further education? There are many reasons.

A big factor here is that in order to get a job you have to go work within a certain specialty or specialty group. Another is to align your professional work and what you do with what you're most interested in and passionate about!

However, if your driver is not to pursue a particular medical interest (mental health, for example), it might be to support a specific demographic (which can greatly affect the type of patient care you give); if it’s not that, it might be to have more job opportunities (more specialized roles are often in higher demand) or even receive a higher salary.

There are plenty of reasons to pursue a specialty, but your reason (or reasons) will be just that, your own reasoning for choosing what path you want to follow. No one can answer that question for you, it simply takes time and a lot of thought.

Here’s What You Should Focus On:

In the following resources, we’ll take a look at numerous specialty resources to help you decide which one is the best fit for you. We’ll cover in depth the various components of nursing specialties to keep in mind as you browse your options.

What

Do the patient population, care setting, delivery model, and diagnoses found within this specialty interest you, is it something you want to learn more about?

Education Requirements

Do you have the educational requirement necessary to work in a given role within this specialty? If not, are they attainable for you, and would you be interested in pursuing them?

Care Advancement

Is there a clear career pathway within the specialty? Do you have interest in pursuing additional certifications and experience within this specialty? Does the experience align with your career goals?

Certifications

Do you have the certifications required for this specialty? Are you committed to completing them and keeping them up to date?

Salary

Does the salary feel fair for the work? Will the salary support your lifestyle or cost of living? Family needs, etc?

Specialty Responsibilities

Are you interested in the procedures, types of patient interactions, makeup of the interdisciplinary team you'd be a part of, and the tools and technologies you'd be using (or lack thereof)?

Common Diagnoses

Are you interested in seeing, discussing with, and treating patients with the most common diagnoses in this specialty?

Care Setting

Where you’re working can be just as important as what you’re doing!Do you think you would thrive in a fast-paced setting seeing a multitude of patients in a day, like the ER? Or would you rather build relationships with the same patients in the inpatient setting?

Explore Nursing Specialties

Click through on the cards below to read an in-depth guide to each nursing specialty.

CVICU Nurse

A CVICU, or cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse, specializes in the care of critically ill patients with heart and vascular problems.

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Cath Lab Nurse

A cardiac cath lab nurse, or cath lab nurse, is a highly-specialized registered nurse who cares for patients undergoing a wide range of invasive and technologically advanced cardiac procedures.

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Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM)

A Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) is an advanced practice nurse who cares for women during pregnancy, childbirth, during their postpartum period, and after.

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Clinical Nurse Educator

Clinical nurse educators provide on-going instruction in areas that improve the quality of care provided by staff and other caregivers.

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Critical Care Nurse

Critical care nurses (CCNs) care for patients with complex, life-threatening conditions in a variety of critical care settings.

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Dialysis Nurse

Dialysis nurses work in the field of nephrology nursing.

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Emergency Department Nurse (ED)

An Emergency Department Nurse (ED), or Emergency Room Nurse (ER), is responsible for assessing, triaging, and treating patients that come through the hospital doors every day; this could entail treating injury, trauma, or acute-onset symptoms.

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Forensic Nurse

Forensic nurses care for patients of any age who have been victims of some violent or traumatic crime. They are skilled at delivering compassionate care to those who have been abused, neglected, or sexually assaulted.

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Home Health Nurse

Home health nurses provide care to patients in their homes who need on-going support with their medical conditions.

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Hospice Nurse

Hospice nurses work with terminally ill or near end of life patients (hospice patients) and their families. Hospice care provides 24/7 supportive care for those with six months or less to live.

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Informatics Nurse

Informatics nurses combine their knowledge of nursing, computers, and information science to help develop and maintain medical data information systems.

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Labor & Delivery Nurse

A labor and delivery nurse offers specialized care to mothers and newborns throughout the childbirth process.

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Legal Nursing Consultant

Legal nurse consultants (LNC) provide guidance to attorneys in analyzing and evaluating whether causes of injuries may be from medical care, nursing care, or both.

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Med-Surg Nurse

Med-Surg (short for medical-surgical) nurses deliver care to a broad range of patients with various medical conditions and surgical histories on a medical-surgical unit.

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Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse (NICU)

Neonatal intensive care (NICU) nurses care for infants who are premature (born prior to 32 weeks) or have critical conditions requiring high level constant monitoring.

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Nurse Advocate

Nurse advocates assist patients in understanding and making informed choices about the care they receive from physicians, health providers, and health facilities.

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Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)

Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are advanced practice nurses trained to administer anesthesia to patients undergoing surgery or other procedures.

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Nurse Practitioner (NP)

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are advanced practice nurses who can deliver primary or acute care to different patient populations.

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Obstetrics Nurse

An Obstetric (OB) nurse is a nurse specializing in obstetrics, a branch of medicine focused on the female reproductive system, encompassing health issues women face during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum period.

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Oncology Nurse

Oncology nurses have the challenging role of delivering care to cancer patients of all ages.

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Operating Room (OR) Nurse

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Orthopedic Nurse

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PACU Nurse

PACU, or post-anesthesia care unit, nurses specialize in caring for patients who are recovering from anesthesia following surgery or other procedures.

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PICU Nurse

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Pediatric Nurse

Pediatric nurses, sometimes called peds nurses, care for children from birth to teenage years who have acute and chronic health conditions.

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Perioperative Nurse

Perioperative nurses provide care for patients undergoing surgery.

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Postpartum Nurse

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Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, also called Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs), are advanced practice nurses who can serve as primary care providers for the mental health community.

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Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse

Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurses specialize in the care of patients with mental illnesses or mental distress. They provide comprehensive care, which includes assessing mental health needs, developing nursing plans, administering psychiatric medication, and offering therapy and counseling. These nurses work closely with patients to manage their conditions and improve their mental health.

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Telemetry Nurse

Telemetry nurses care for patients with cardiac conditions and those who have had a cardiac procedure or surgery and work to monitor their cardiac rhythm.

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Utilization Review Nurse

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Wound Care Nurse

Wound Care Nurses specialize in the proper management and treatment of wounds, including acute and chronic wounds, surgical incisions, and various types of ulcers. The wound care specialty is vital in preventing infections, promoting healing, and helping patients with wound management at home.

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Further Resources

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